Life, Love, and the News
by Kimmibob
Summary: Fitzwilliam Darcy is one of the greatest anchors to ever grace the evening hours on the Pemberley Broadcasting Network, but is quickly losing his edge. If new International Affairs correspondent Elizabeth Bennet can't help him, she'll certainly take his j
1. Prologue

Title: Life, Love, and the News

Author: Kimmibob

Rating: T

Disclaimer: Darcy, Bennet, Knightley, most of the plot et. al. belong to Jane Austen and heirs.

Summary: Fitzwilliam Darcy is one of the greatest anchors to ever grace the evening hours on the Pemberley Broadcasting Network, but is quickly losing his edge. If new International Affairs correspondent Elizabeth Bennet can't help him, she'll certainly take his job. Improved title coming soon.

A/N: Set mostly about 5 years in near future. Most of the "disasters" are completely made up, but based in real places. I just needed to post this "prologue" to get it out of my computer and to see what people think. The article would probably appear in some sort of entertainment magazine. So it goes without saying, but I'll go ahead... please R&R. :-)

_**Pemberley Thus Polluted... **_

**PBN's Nightly Newscast has left it's competitors in the dust for years, but a sinking margin over the rest of the news industry has caused some people to wonder if Fitzwilliam Darcy actually is beatable. **

When the Pemberley Broadcasting Network first announced it would place a woman, Annabella Westing, in charge as News Director and Executive Producer, and Brit Fitzwilliam Darcy as the face of their flagship Nightly News program, many insiders balked and thought they would sink as fast as possible.

This was not because Westing was a woman, or because Darcy was British. At least, this was never stated. Many were outraged because Westing and Darcy were married and felt this would lead to too many ethical issues.

Come 10 years later, the Nightly News is still the highest rated program in the hour and looked at as a beacon of journalistic integrity in broadcasting.

"It's pretty ironic that it turned out this way," says Matthew Baldwin, Director of the Goodwin Institute for Media and Journalism Studies at the University of Indianapolis, "We were all so preoccupied with Darcy and Westing's relationship that we didn't take a look at their respective track records."

Darcy had already received 3 Emmys for his work in the Ugandan hostage situation, the tragic floods in the Yellow River, and his reports from the L-Train bombings, which many say cemented his name.

"He was the only one who remained remotely calm," says Sheldon Musgrove, News Director at PBN's major competitor BJS, "Everybody else, maybe rightly or not, was running around, scared out of their minds, but Darcy just took it and reported it. He was a journalist. Which in some ways was remarkable."

Darcy is the son of business magnate Lord Henry Darcy and virtuoso cellist Scarlett Polling. Already famous in his own country by the time he was in High School, based solely on his heritage, he naturally shunned the attention. He moved to the United States to study Political Science at Georgetown and then earned a Master's Degree from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism.

Similarly, Westing has a distinguished pedigree. Her father is former New York Senator and US Ambassador to the UN Harold Westing, her mother French physicist Claire DeSanc Westing.

Then, it seems, their marriage took a turn. "When Fitz was doing that great reporting, I think everybody forgot they were married," says Richard Williams, longtime host of PBN's Early Today, "including them."

Westing and Darcy quietly divorced in 2010 with some competitors rejoicing that maybe this would spell the end of the "Reign of Darcy." Not so. In fact, he came back with a vengeance, earning 4 Emmys himself alone. One of which came after a "3-month-hiatus," from anchoring, where he went into the wilderness of Central Africa to uncover one of the world's most horrifying violations of human rights.

"Some would say he jumped into that Hell in the Congo because of the divorce. I'd tell you that was just Darcy being Darcy, and it was, but he didn't come back the same," says friend Williams, "sometimes he would just get so worked up about it, he was so afraid to show people because it was so horrific."

Worldwide commendation soon followed. So did his departure from doing any reporting. At all. Darcy quietly allowed John Knightley to step into his boots as PBN's leading investigative reporter and slipped firmly into his anchor desk.

"It was so strange," says Musgrove, "the man was known for his field work. That was what made him, and there he was, sitting in anchor chair, spouting off the readers, but never moving."

Then the ratings started to stumble. Slipping from a 10 margin to a 5 margin in 6 months, Darcy now barely holds onto his lead over Henry Tilney. Baldwin says its all Darcy's doing, "The only reason they have any sort of lead is due to their stellar reporting staff. I say this with all due respect, but he's lost whatever that spark was, he just doesn't seem to care anymore, and that could break him. Severely."

Though Westing and PBN haven't revealed any plans to shake-up what's been a steady operation for over a decade, some have speculated John Knightley is to take up the post. While others see those from other networks - or even Richard Williams, who says he would never accept the position.

Still, the mostly likely outcome is also the strangest. Westing recently hired WPBN standout Elizabeth Bennet to be the Chief International Affairs Correspondent and Weekend Anchor. Sources inside PBN say this has all the makings of a takeover, or at least a shake-up, that Bennet will most likely become co-anchor to Darcy, if not replace him. Only time will tell.

_Note: While the University of Indianapolis does exist, there is no Goodwin Institute for Media and Journalism there. _

A/N: R&R and you will get to meet one of these broadcasters... well... in writing anyhow.


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: So, in recognition of the promise I made about reviewing, here's Chapter 1. Thanks for all of the nice reviews, guys. :-)

Chapter 1

_**Well, I mean, obviously Darcy is soooo much cuter... **_

_What the Hell am I watching?"_

_**Hello! I mean really, if they took him off then what would be the point of watching the news?**_

_To gain perspective and information, maybe... _

_**But seriously, this Lizzy Bennet chick, do we have a graphic thingy of her... **_

_A graphic thingy? Holy God... professionalism obviously escapes some people. _

_**Yea, there we go. She's got like a ton of industry cred and what have you and I guess she's okay-looking, but it's not like she's gonna be better than Fitzwilliam Darcy! I mean really! And Anna Westing CLAIMS that she just hired Bennet to take over since poor old Wickham had to leave, but for gosh sakes, we know what's going on. My real advice to PBN News people, extraordinaire...**_

_God, did she just say extra-ordi-nar-ee? _

_**...Is to get Darcy to go out to Sri Lanka or wherever is doing bad these days... I mean, it's not like he's not gorgeous in those tailored suits or anything... but he looks even cuter when his hair's all mussed and he's wearing real people clothes. **_

_Real people clothes???_

_**So, in conclusion: Let Lizzy Bennet do whatever she wants and get Darcy to get out of his suits and then PBN will be perfectly fine. That's today's Caroline Chat from me, Caroline Buckingham, next on Netherfield's Star Gazer, is Lindsay Lohan ever going to wear panties again? **_

"Well, if I'm not cute enough for Netherfield Channel's Caroline Buckingham, what have I to live for," Elizabeth Bennet joked to herself as she switched the channel to WPBN's 6:00 Newscast. She was going to miss those guys. Currently was a nice commercial for the Nightly Newscast coming up in 12 minutes. What was the most interesting to her was that the advice being given to HRH Fitzwilliam Darcy across the board was probably the easiest to employ... He should do some live broadcasting. She realized this required some sort of horrific disaster, but he really needed to get out from that desk. She also hated that Caroline Buckingham was right.

She was just happy to be starting tomorrow morning. Even if she did have to work with the man whose descriptions ran the gamut from "Amazing," to "The Devil Incarnate," and somewhere in the middle lurked, "Pretty damn great journalist, horrible person."

* * *

The phone was ringing. He was going to let it do so without answering. He knew it was her. Not that he had gotten all fancy with it and changed it to some specific song for each person or anything. He hadn't changed it to anything besides that nice little Cingular tune. He just knew it was her based on the time and a certain article in _News and Entertainment..._

He went back to the document currently on his computer. The phone had now started vibrating and then fell off his desk. He hated that feature. Mostly because he felt it would break and then he'd have to go back down to the Cingular store and deal with the 800 greeters and stupid salespeople who were convinced that he somehow needed a text messaging plan and an MP3 player.

The phone was now twirling around on the floor. Making noise and vibrating yet again. He then realized he could probably take it off the vibrating ring. He was just too lazy to actually do so. It then twirled again and hit the bottom of his chair. He finally relented.

"Bella," he sighed as he answered his phone, "You know you can just come to my office if you need to talk to me."

"Not really," came the voice at the other end, "I... I... um..."

"Spill," he said rather succinctly.

"I'm stuck in the elevator," she offered.

"Literally or figuratively?" he posited.

"How can you be figuratively stuck in an elevator?" she asked as she pressed the Emergency button for what she swore was the 23rd time.

"So literally, then... You called security right?"

"God Darcy, I do have a college degree..."

"From Columbia," he smiled, knowing what he had to say to get her to go off.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she stamped her Manolo Blahnik encased foot as she pressed the button again.

"That Georgetown's better," before she could muster up her retort he continued, "So what did you need?"

"Well, are you doing anything right now?" she sighed and slid down to sit, content to be stuck in the elevator for a long time.

"Only my job," he offered as he turned on Caroline Buckingham's latest rant proferring her "esteemed" knowledge.

"Funny. I mean, anything BESIDES dicking around on your laptop pretending to be newsgathering, when really you're either editing Wikipedia or scanning YouTube."

"Actually, I'm reviewing Bingley's latest script," he said as he closed the link to video of Elizabeth Bennet in her first job.

"I'm sure you are. I need you to pick up Bennet downstairs."

He nearly dropped his phone.

"Why the Hell would I do that?"

"You need to meet her and spend time with her."

"Bella, why would I want to spend time with Bennet?" he still wasn't sure how to play his ex-wife's latest mind game. Sometimes he wondered why he bothered.

"Because I'm making you. It's not a question of want."

"Fine. But I have one question," he asked as he retreived his suit jacket from the back of his chair.

"What?" she snapped, growing ever tired of his nonplussed attitude.

"If you're stuck in the elevator, then how am I to get to first floor and attempt to retreive Elizabeth "Spunky" Bennet?" he gathered the keys to his office.

"There are stairs, you know."

"Yea, stairs where strange people lurk and try to kill me."

"Okay, now you're making excuses."

"Don't worry. I'll get her," he said as he locked the door.

As he walked down the interminably long flight of stairs to the first floor of the DeBourgh Media Group Headquarters, Darcy thought about why he was actually doing this for Bella. He hated Elizabeth Bennet. He hated what she stood for - the "Katie-Couric-I'm-so-cute-watch-me-twirl" style of broadcast journalism. Okay. He was lying. Elizabeth Bennet was more some sort of amazing combination of Katie Couric's good qualities and Christianne Amanpour. Smart, ballsy, and spunky. It scared him.

Maybe the real reason he was doing this was because he was intrigued. He had the rare opportunity to meet a colleague before Bella clouded their opinion. Oh, who was he kidding, Bennet was smart enough to have done her homework. She must have known his reputation. He finally made it down the stairs, not before encountering both Charles Bingley and Richard Williams. He wondered what was going on in the stairwell that he had been missing. He would have to investigate later. He was finally at the first floor.

He greeted Mary at the Welcome Desk and asked her if she'd seen Elizabeth Bennet. Mary asked him where Ms. Westing was.

"Oh, stuck in an elevator," he answered, "Sometimes her bad luck makes me wonder if she does it on purpose."

"Yes, but I don't think she would do that," Mary smiled to him, "Oh, there's Miss Bennet there."

"Thanks Mary," he said, "Does she need some sort of pass or anything?"

"Well, not from me, she has to get it from security later on."

"Duly noted, thanks again Mary."

He took the opportunity to obtain his best expression of confidence before introducing himself.

"Miss Bennet?" he asked after her figure. She was currently retreiving her phone from her purse. When she saw him she immediately put it back. She offered a hand out which he stared at for a bit before taking it.

"It's Elizabeth," she smiled, "You don't happen to know what happened to Annabella do you?"

"Ah, well," he sighed, "She has some penchant for getting stuck in elevators. So she sent me as an emmissary."

"I see, well could you do me the favor of showing me to my office?" she dared to ask. She was concerned and wondering why he seemed to be nice to her. She reasoned that it was her first day and that he was just buttering her up for extreme disappointment later. Though she hated to admit it, she had to agree with Caroline Buckingham, he was pretty cute. Goddamnit, she didn't come here to be thinking Fitzwilliam Darcy was cute, of all things to be considering at a time like this.

"Sure. Would you like to chance the elevator?" he asked as they walked to the elevator.

"Why not? I'm feeling adventurous," she quipped.

"Yes. They're so dangerous, elevators," he smiled. What was wrong with him, was he flirting? No. Fitzwilliam Darcy doesn't flirt.

They made inane small talk in the ride upstairs. He damned himself. On top of flirting he was making small talk. He had to crush Elizabeth Bennet. Crush her before she made him a blithering idiot. The elevator finally dinged on the good old 34th floor - the home of PBN's news division. They made their way through all of the desks in the news room. He finally got her to her office, with her name inscribed on the door.

"If you have any questions, Knightley's across the hall there, I'm sure he'd be happy to help," she silently wondered why he was profering Knightley's help, but didn't offer his own. Typical Darcy probably.

"Well thanks," she said, "See you around?"

"Sure. Oh, and Bennet?" he stopped her as she was about to go to her office, "If I can give you a word of advice?"

"What?" she glared.

"Avoid William Collins. At all costs," he stated and walked down the corridor towards where she assumed his office was.

---

A/N: So, I'm not definite on the fact that Elizabeth and Knightley would get their own offices, but I figure they're important enough that they should... Most reporters would just be assigned a desk in the news room as far as I know.

So... R&R, ya know. We should learn more about Elizabeth and get to meet Richard Williams in Chapter 2.


End file.
